Fretboard Theory Volumes I + II Combined: The complete guitar theory series on scales, chords, progressions, modes, song composition, and more.

Comprehensive and thorough. Answers the questions I’ve had for ages.

Excellent. Video support is there and everything is very well thought out. Not for beginners. Have all your open and barre chords in order, and be able to play songs with some confidence before tackling this!

Great book easy to use.

This is the book(s) I have been looking for. If you are looking for a book that teaches the practical application of scales, chords and modes this is the book for you. There are tons of guitar theory books out there, what separates these books from the rest are two things: it doesn’t rely on standard music notation and the copious examples provided from popular rock music from the 60s through the 90s. Many other books will rely on standards from the public domain or have examples reacted by the author. The problem with this approach is its not actually teaching you about the songs you would want to play. The fact that references extensively songs and specific song sections that demonstrate the material presented is extremely valuable.For the intermediate or advance beginner guitarist I recommend using this book in close conjunction with the authors website as he has free tabs and YouTube videos for many of the songs he references. This isn’t a book to just read and your done. I recommend, reading a section then playing through the sited song sections.Another thing I like about these books is that they are the only book I know of that attempts to teach these ideas on both bass and guitar.Lastly, the books are very well written without any filler. This is a guitar music theory book, but is presented in a way that is extremely approachable.

Exactly what a guitarist needs to get past the intermediate sticking point of frustration. This coming from me, a guy that took private lessons for 10 years. Worth 20x what I paid for course.

very advanced theory, be prepared to be overwhelmed.works excellent as a "sleep aid".

Desi Serna is by far the best guitar teacher. I say this because he is not only an outstanding guitarist, but also a philosopher of “guitar”, and it’s music. While music has a universal language, that language uses different mediums to express it through the many instrumental mediums out there. Guitar is not different, you can’t use the same concepts for learning piano and apply them to guitar. Desi Serna realizes this and presents it in such a relateable fashion in his books. If your serious about learning guitar and you’ve tried to do so in the past with the burning question(s) of “but how am I supposed to remember that?” Or “why should I know this??” Then you need to get fretboard theory 1 and 2, to take your play from beginner to intermediate and advanced play. You can use these books with a full investment of time, enthusiasm, and excitement, knowing that by doing so, you WILL learn to how rock the house!

A lot of great information that is put in a way to understand, and how the fretboard works. A lot of practice is required to put into use. It is not something you are going to pick up and become a virtuoso overnight. I give it four stars instead of 5 in that the book is too thick for realistic use while trying to play and keep the book open. I would have rather had the two books separately, if I had known that it was going to be this thick and hard to keep open while trying to refer back to it. The author should have known this.

If you're at the sort of level where you can play chords, barre chords and power chords in the context of whole songs and you're wondering what comes next, this could be for you. Although quite musically technical, it is introduced in such a way that you can understand the topic easily, mostly through the continued mantra 'play songs'. How and where scales fit into song-playing and even which songs particular scales fit into.If you think this might be for you, I strongly suggest you look up 'Guitar Music Theory' podcasts also by Desi Serna, especially the early podcasts where he covers some related material from these books.The books are clearly laid out with plenty of fretboard diagrams and examples of how to use certain scales in particular songs. An excellent tutorial and onging resource for the improving guitarist.

A lot of knowledge in these books takes some working through but worth it

Excellent theory book for guitar. Very thorough and many useful diagrams and pictures. Only 4 stars as diagrams are in black and white: color would have been so much better. Also it is a bound book. Due to its size, a spiral or binder would have worked better for keeping open. The author is a teacher on YouTube and is excellent as well. He really knows his stuff. Highly recommend.

I stumbled onto this book by accident and am so glad I did. I've been struggling with scales for years but the author explains clearly the relationships of the minor and major keys needed for the big picture and providing the glue for putting it all together. I'm only on chapter two (The Pentatonic Scale) but have already gotten so much out of it. The Author also provides online material with popular songs and tabs to take the dreariness out of learning the notes and scale patterns. If you are serious about finally figuring out the secrets of the guitar fretboard, this book is a gem.

As said many times in the comments, that's probably not a good book for absolute beginners mainly because it's overwhelming. I get how complex it is to lay on paper the theory and this book fails imo. I still use it as everything said is true and useful but diving into it is not a pleasant experience even when you know exactly what you're looking for. The first reading was the worst with entire parts copy/pasted for each note. Again, it might be true but seems suboptimal. It itches me to reorganize the book every time I open it (not the chapters, but the content itself)